Disturbance at Sebastopol pub leads to arrest

January 9, 2013, 7:02AM

01/09/2013

A 24-year-old Santa Rosa man who claimed to have a gun outside Hopmonk Tavern was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of drunken driving and fleeing officers, Sebastopol police said.

As police responded to a report of a disruptive person at the tavern just before 1 a.m., the man apparently went outside where he told people in the parking lot he had a gun, Sgt. Mike Nielsen said.

Witnesses said the man, later identified as Eduardo Machuca Basulto, took something from the trunk of a car and put it in his waistband, Nielsen said.

Basulto was driving away when police arrived on foot and tried to stop him but had to jump out of the way as he left, Nielsen said.

They followed by car in a pursuit that ended less than a mile away in a parking lot on Sebastopol Avenue near Morris Street.

Basulto, who appeared intoxicated, was arrested at gunpoint on suspicion of drunken driving, violating probation, obstructing police and driving with three suspensions on his driver's license, Nielsen said.